Microsoft patents ID system that rebuilds itself after reboots
Microsoft describes a method for creating unique identifiers that can be rebuilt from scratch if a computer restarts or software is reinstalled. The system combines specific details about the hardware and user account into a string, runs it through a mathematical formula to create a hash, and uses parts of that hash as the new IDs. This ensures the system recognizes the same device or user without needing to look up old saved data.
In the filing’s own words
Regenerable items serve as identifiers or keys or both. A regenerable items tuple is generated by combining context-specific identifiers into a string, hashing the string, and designating individual hash portions as respective regenerable items. Regenerable items maintain artifact tracking continuity after a reinstall, a reboot, or another intervening event without retrieval of a previously generated value from a registry or state file. Some regenerable items conform to a universally unique identifier specification. Some regenerable items are free of reliance on nondeterministic content, and some are free of reliance on time-dependent content.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method performed by a computing system which includes multiple contexts, each context comprising a specification of at least one of: a hardware device, a particular user account, a particular group of user accounts, a computational service, an application program, a location, a virtual machine, or a container which is a software virtualization mechanism, and wherein the method comprises: forming a string from at least a first context-specific identifier and a second context-specific identifier, the first context-specific identifier specific to a first context of the multiple contexts, the second context-specific identifier specific to a second context of the multiple contexts, the second context including a different context than the first context; computing a cryptographic hash of the string by applying a cryptographic hash procedure to the string, the cryptographic hash comprising a first portion and a second portion; utilizing the first portion of the cryptographic hash as a first regenerable item; and utilizing the second portion of the cryptographic hash as a second regenerable item; wherein an item X is regenerable when a computer-implementable regeneration method exists which upon execution regenerates X in the absence of any copy of X.
Facts
- Company
- Microsoft (Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC)
- Official title
- MULTICONTEXT UNIQUE IDENTIFIER REGENERATION
- Publication number
- US20260280891A1
- Application number
- 19089078
- Filed
- Mar 25, 2025
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Inventors
- 2
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
H04L 9/3236 Electricity & electronicsH04L 9/0819 Electricity & electronicsH04L 9/0866 Electricity & electronicsMore from Microsoft in AI & software
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.